LETTERS: High rise, hemp and flashing lights

I WRITE this letter to speak for the silent majority in reference to the conundrum confoundingBundaberg Regional Council and stakeholders...

Letter writer Mitch Pulallus says a highrise at Bargara should be 100 storeys high. Picture: Contributed

High rise opinion

I WRITE this letter to speak for the silent majority in reference to the conundrum confoundingBundaberg Regional Council and stakeholders involved in the decision on the proposed Bargara multi-storey development.

As the holder of the triple crown of Bundy born, Bundy bred and Bundy ratepayer status, my opinion is thus elevated above all others and must be heeded.

My research amongst my fellow citizens indicates that the current plans do not go far enough.

We want to see a magnificent building beyond 100 storeys in height.

A building of shining glass and polished aluminium that scratches the surface of heaven itself.

We want a building where the universal language of money is spoken.

We want a building that we can see from Bourbong St.

We want a building that shouts "all marine animals welcome” (ideally in glowing red neon).

We want a light signal thrown to the skies in the shape of a turtle from dusk 'til dawn. We expect that this building will be the first stage of development with the second stage to focus on a monorail linking the coastal townships to Bundaberg.

We expect that this building will doff the cap to the past and shake hands with the future.

We envisage a giant rum bottle weathervane in conjunction with a hang glider take-off platform.

We dream of mass employment catering to our every need as new tower overlords.

As a conciliatory gesture to our opponents we are prepared to accept green and social measures for this development and we promote the growth of row after row of aloe vera on the external walls of the building picked and processed on site by welfare card recipients.

I write this to the opponents of development - you claim that the development would result in pestilence and plague upon the good people of Bargara and its turtles.

I counter your argument and say that if that were true then I would be agreeing with you.

No charge this time.

MITCH PUKALLUS,

Svensson Heights

Flashing lights call

I AM writing in relation to the article titled"Improved safety for 3 schools”, published in the NewsMail on Friday, August 3.

The article advised that three schools in the Bundaberg region (St John's and St Patrick's in Bundaberg and Gooburrum State School in Burnett) will receive flashing school zone signs this financial year as part of the State Government's road safety program.

While I welcome the news for these three schools, I believe the State Government needs to invest more into this program and accelerate its completion to protect the safety of our children, pedestrians and motorists.

This program funds the installation of flashing lights at Queensland school zones at a rate of 100 a year. Currently, there are 2200 school zones in Queensland without sufficient lights. That means, at this rate, it will be another 22 years before every school zone in Queensland has the necessary flashing lights. In my opinion, that is ridiculous.

Installing the lights at every remaining school zone in the state would cost about $77 million. When you hear that Labor is spending $45 million on an inner city cycleway over just two years in the Transport Minister's own backyard, you quickly realise $77 million is small change in his $3.4 billion budget.

At the last election, the LNP promised that if elected, we would install flashing lights at all public and private Bundaberg schools. At such a small expense, there is no excuse why the current Government can't make the same commitment.

I will continue to fight for this until every school zone in Bundaberg has flashing school zone signs.

DAVID BATT,

Member for Bundaberg

Hemp a wonder

R HENDERSON (NM, Thursday, July 19) is largely correct regarding the symbolic proscription of single-use plastic bags. They are, after all, only the last in a string of single use packaging. Take a lamb chop: plastic tray, absorbent pad, cling wrapped well before sharing the "single use” plastic bag.

His nostalgic argument that paper bags are more economical and environmentally friendly leave one wondering about the source for the woodchips to produce the multimillion bags? The wood chip industry is already a major environmental vandal; a mechanical all-consuming dragon clear-felling the world's forests, or "living lungs”.

Now had the suggestion been hemp as a pulp alternative nearly all the positives could have been supported. Hemp is a crop eminently suitable for paper pulp, a new annual crop for Australian farmers, increasing employment in a new industry.

A major, if not only, reason for cannabis prohibition in the 1930 was pressure on Harry Anslinger from William Randolf Hearst because Hearst's (and other) paper-producing companies were challenged by hemp, as was DuPont's investment in nylon.

In the glorious days of sail, hemp was a mandatory crop to supply the massive demand for cordage.

Apart from its now well-documented medicinal qualities hemp provides a highly nutritious seed, a superior lubricating oil, excellent fibre staple and exceptional paper pulp.

It might be a myth that Henry Ford developed a hemp automobile, fuelled with hemp oil, but his scientists did find myriad uses for hemp derived plastics in the 1940s.

DIETER MOECKEL,

Wonbah